1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a cable-type steering device, including a wire driving means connected to a steering wheel, and a wire follower means connected to a gear box for steering vehicle wheels, the wire driving means and the wire follower means being connected to each other by wires, so that a steering torque inputted to the steering wheel is transmitted to the gear box through the wires.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a conventional steering device for a vehicle, a steering shaft having a steering wheel at an upper end thereof is connected at its lower end to the gear box, so that the steering torque inputted to the steering wheel is transmitted through the steering shaft to a rack and pinion mechanism which is mounted within the gear box.
However, if the steering wheel and the gear box are connected to each other using the steering shaft, it is difficult to freely select the position of the steering wheel relative to the position of the gear box. For this reason, there is a problem in that the degree of design freedom is substantially limited. Also, the gear box cannot be commonly used in a right-hand steered vehicle and a left-hand steered vehicle. Moreover, another problem is that the vibration encountered by a tire from a road surface and the vibration of an engine are transferred to the steering wheel through the steering shaft and hence, the silence within a vehicle compartment and the riding comfort of the vehicle are impeded by such vibrations.
Therefore, there is a proposed cable-type steering device which employs a flexible transmitting means such as Bowden wire and the like, in place of the conventional steering shaft (see Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No.8-2431).
If the construction of the proposed cable-type steering device is used, the position of the steering wheel relative to the position of the gear box can be freely selected and moreover, the vibration of the gear box is difficult to be transmitted to the steering wheel and hence, the above-described problems can be solved.
However, in the conventional art, a partition wall forming a rear wall of an engine room is interposed between a pulley mounted on a rotary shaft of the steering wheel and a pulley mounted on a rotary shaft of the gear box. For this reason, it is necessary to mount the wires for interconnecting both of the pulleys, so that the wires are passed through the partition wall, and the assembly of the wires is troublesome. Moreover, the conventional steering device suffers from a problem in that it is necessary to simultaneously regulate the neutral position of the steering wheel mounted on the side of the vehicle compartment and the neutral position of the gear box on the side of the engine room from both of a vehicle compartment and an engine room in order to match both the neutral positions with each other, and the operation for such regulation is inferior.